


Marked

by Gallus



Series: Here There Be Dragons [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Accidental Partial Mind Control, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Gen, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 20:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19411303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gallus/pseuds/Gallus
Summary: Sabo suffers the side effects of having been raised with dragons(OrI Abuse Line Breaks For Creative Effect)





	Marked

**Author's Note:**

> this was a lot closer to being finished than i thought

He wakes up with nothing but a fire in his chest, a tingle in his fingertips, and a bag of unfamiliar belongings.

The bag says that his name is Sabo. Even the name sounds unfamiliar to him.

The people that saved him want to take him back home. As soon as he hears that the fire in his cheat spikes, and his fingertips go numb, and he can’t go back he can’t go back he can’t go back because he’s dea-

The people agree to let him stay. Someone tells his that it will be weeks before his injuries fully heal, but he doesn’t feel all that hurt. He does feel tired though, so he lets himself drift back to sleep.

-

He floats.

He can see the two of them above him, and they’re sad. He wants to help, to make them not sad, but he can’t he’s not supposed to.

Below him he can see his missing life, but it’s behind a wall. He’s not supposed to look at that wall either, so he turns back to the two above him.

He can’t do anything here, but watching them makes him feel better, at peace, maybe.

He drifts.

-

When he wakes up he can’t remember his dream. He thinks that maybe he didn’t dream at all He looks to the side, and sees a bag of unfamiliar belongings. Right. His name is Sabo.

Sabo sits up. He’s covered in burns, but they hurt all that much. _‘I’ve had worse’_ he thinks apropos of nothing, then wonders how he knows that.

He shakes his head to try to jog the wispy memories loose. It works, and they all float back down to where they should be.

He reaches for the bag, and get a little jolt of static electricity when he touches the buckle. Inside the bag are unfamiliar clothes, some waterlogged snacks, and a burnt journal. He idly flips through the journal not sure what he’s looking to find. There’s nothing written on any of the pages, but some scribbles on the inside of the front cover declares the book ‘Property of Sabo’

He traces his fingers over the signature, and almost wonders who that person was.

-

The doctor lets Sabo go a week earlier than expected. Sabo asks about the constant tingling numbness in his fingers. The doctor says it’s probably some kind of nerve damage from the burns. Sabo doesn't ask about the burns he feels inside his chest.

Until he decides whether to stay with the revolutionary army or leave Sabo is sent to train under a fish-man named Hack.

Hack’s a good teacher and all, but there’s nothing he can teach Sabo, so it’s not long before Sabo sets off to train alone. 

It doesn’t feel right being alone, but for some reason Sabo feels like he can't show this to other people. He’s hiding in a supply closest concentrating on the tingle in his fingers. He feels like there must be some way to pull the tingling out. He stares at his hands and focuses on the sensation, then he tries imagining that he can pull that sensation out of his body.

A small spark of electricity jumps from one hand to the other, and.

He drifts

-

He floats.

He feel electric, like the smaller one above him. It feels right, but.

But.

he’s not supposed to

Under him the wispy memories are pushing up against the wall that holds them back. If he turned and looked at them he might remember something, so he keeps his back to them.

He watches the two above him for a while. They’re both so bright. The bigger one is bright like a bonfire, steady and comforting. The smaller one is bright like lightning, fast and unpredictable.

He watches them until the electric feeling seeps out of his body, and then.

He wakes up.

-

Sabo wakes up in a cramped supply closet. He’s not sure why he decided to take a nap in a supply closet of all things, but if it’s kept him from having to do chores he’ll take it.

-

Sabo learns to stop thinking about who he used to be, he starts wearing gloves to help ignore the tingling in his fingers, and he stops trying to feel the fire that burns in his chest.

-

It’s not long before Dragon starts mentoring him personally. For the longest time Sabo was a little scared of Dragon. No matter where he had just come from the man always smelled like he’d just walked out of a storm. Sabo learns to get used to it, after all Dragon saved his life, he can’t be that bad.

Dragon decides to train Sabo in the martial art ‘Ryusoken’ or ‘dragon claw fist’.

Turns out Sabo’s a natural.

-

It’s New Year's Day and Sabo is probably seventeen. In the revolutionary army probably is good enough, so Sabo drinking on and off since last night.. He’s already starting to regret it.

It’s a little after morning, but not quite noon, and koala is teasing him when he feels it.

Sabo’s whole world shifts a little to the side, and someone bright like a bonfire is shouting, _“Sabo! Look at me!”_

And 

He’s 

Floating

Sabo wakes up. He gets a lecture from Hack about drinking responsibly. Sabo’s head hurts, but he’s not sure if it's because of the alcohol. He thinks that maybe he dreamed, but he can’t remember.

-

Sabo wakes up with a bad feeling that he can't seem to shake. It feels like something bad is about to happen, or maybe something bad has already happened? Whatever the case, Sabo spends the day on pins and needles. The burning in his chest is so strong he feels like he's cooking from the inside out, his skin feels like it's going to start audibly crackling any second now, and worst of all is the almost overwhelming need to be somewhere. All of this nervous energy bouncing in his seat, until he's pacing the halls, until he's cleaning the kitchen alone, just so his hands have something to do. Ironically, this is the reason why Sabo is one of the last people on base to hear news about Fire Fist's upcoming execution.

Everyone's on high alert, there's no way Whitebeard is going to take this sitting down. The Revolutionary Army won't be involving itself, but there are a few key spies in the Marines that now happen to find themselves in very favorable positions.

Sabo can't sit still. That feeling of needing to be somewhere else has gotten so bad he's been told explicitly to stay out of strategy meetings until he's gotten a hold of himself. 

About a day before the execution Sabo abruptly comes down with the worst stomach bug of his life. The onset is so sudden and the symptoms are so bad that at first the doctors think he's been poisoned. He hasn't been poisoned, in fact, medically speaking, he doesn't even seem to be sick. The doctors can't find anything wrong with him, all Sabo can do is try to get some sleep.

The next day and Sabo's feeling better. He's able to get up and eat like nothing happened yesterday. After about an hour in bed Sabo's gone stir crazy enough for the doctor on staff to let him go with strict orders to take it easy. Sabo's pretty sure part of the reason he was let out so early is because execution about to happen. The halls are buzzing with people running news and gossiping, and all the, _'Do you still need the latest intelligence report?'_ 's and, _'Have you seen the video?'_ 's are starting to drive him crazy. How can all these people stand around and talking when Sabo feels like he's going to crawl out of his skin.

He decides to distract himself by catching up with paperwork he's missed these past few days, if only because it will be quieter at his desk. 

After a while Sabo starts to feel better, starts to feel like himself again. It feels like he's finally where he needs to be, like no matter what, things will work out, and all of that nervous drains away as he takes what feels like his first proper breath in days.

And then someone punches a hole through his torso.

Sabo thinks he's screaming. He must be screaming, otherwise how would all these people find him on the floor behind his desk? 

This is the most painful thing Sabo has ever experienced, it's more painful than the fire that took his memories, more painful than any fight he's ever been in, more painful than the day he realized that his parents didn't love him. Someone is asking what's wrong, but Sabo can't answer because he's too busy dying. Someone has their hands around his wrists and won't stop tugging at him, and Sabo abruptly realizes that he's clawing at his own chest. But that's not right. It can't be right. It can't be right because there's nothing to claw at because Sabo has a hole in his chest how canthey not see whyisn't anyone doinganything _his brotherisgoingtodie_

And under everything Sabo feels a sense of peace. He needs to say something impotent, something that might be the most impotent thing he's ever needed to say, but he can't get the words out, can't stop screaming, so he lets that sense of peace drag him down with it.

And drifts.

-

He floats.

From where he is Sabo can see his whole life stretched out under him. No more barriers, no more bits missing. If he wanted to, Sabo could let himself float down into the pool underneath him and let everything slot back into place. But that's not why he's here, there's something more impotent going on above him.

The Bigger One, Ace, their names are Ace and Luffy, is gone, and Luffy is hanging on by a thread. Sabo knows that if that thread snaps so will he along with it. There's nothing for Sabo to do but wait.

After watching and waiting for what could have been weeks, or maybe only seconds, Sabo turns his attention inward.

It's not pretty. When Ace died he took his piece of Sabo with him, so now everything's trying it's best to stitch back together, but there's not enough left. The bits that aren't him, the bits Ace and Luffy gave him, hold fast. Even though Ace is gone the bits he gave to Sabo will stay healthy, because they might be little pieces of Ace, but they're also little pieces of Sabo now. The little pieces that aren't himself try their best to hold the even smaller pieces that are himself together, but there's just not enough himself left, he gave it all away so long ago that he can't even remember what it feels like to whole.

It occurs (or reoccurs?) to Sabo that he's only alive because his brothers want him to be. He could be an empty husk right now, but his brothers don't(didn't) want that, they love(loved) him so much that they would rather give away pieces of themselves than live without him. But in the end, they could only give away so much, and Sabo had already given so, so much.

Sabo's tired of looking at all of his fragments of Ace, so he turns his attention back outward toward Luffy. The single thread has grown into a flayed rope. Good. That's good.

If Luffy dies he'll take his piece of Sabo with him just like Ace did, and then there will be nothing left of Sabo worth saving.

The rope grows stronger by the second, until Luffy wakes up. And Sabo can tell that Luffy's not okay, but he's not dying anymore, and that's as much as he can hope for right now.

Sabo closes his eyes, and lets himself sink down, down, down below all the wispy memories and into sleep.

-

He remembers.

Some of the parts are out of order, and some have faded with age, but that can all wait to sort itself when he's awake. 

So for now he's content, for now he lets himself.

_Remember._

-

Sabo's starting to think something's wrong. It's been a few days now and he can still feel the electric tingle in his fingertips, and the heat in his chest.

He supposes he'll have to mention it to Ace and Luf- no, to his brothers over dinner. Sabo's worried he's coming down with something, and he doesn't want to infect Ace, because Ace turns into the biggest baby when he gets sick.

Well, he'll bring it up over dinner if they ever manage to catch anything. Usually finding the sharks was the easiest part of shark hunting. The things had to have some kind of built in child sensor. Dinner time was quickly approaching, and at this point it would probably be better to give up on shark stew and go looking for an animal that felt like being eaten today, but after all the time wasted the three of them were determined.

So Sabo and Ace waded farther apart into the sea, and Luffy was terrorizing some defenseless crabs back on shore, and all of them were a little hungry and grouchy, so that's probably why none of them noticed the rip current that sucked up Sabo.

Luffy's yelping from the shore, and Ace is cursing and following Sabo from a safe distance, so all Sabo has to do is not drown for a minute. Okay, cool. Sabo can handle this, just stay calm, don't swim against the current, stay afloat. Easy-peasy. To bad basic rip current safety doesn't account for ankle-biting, child-eating sharks.

Sabo doesn't have time to gasp for air before he's pulled under. Okay. Okay. The key here is to stay calm. He balls up his little air-starved fists and wacks the shark as hard as he can across the nose, but all that seems to do is annoy the shark. It's gearing up to rip Sabo's leg in half, when Sabo suddenly has a wild burst of pre-death insight. 

The shark kinda does have a child sensor.

It's got all these pores on its face that can sort-of sense electricity, so that means one little shock should send it scurrying away. Sabo focuses on the tingle in his fingertips, lets it build, and then smacks the underside of the shark's jaw. Sabo hears a Pop! through the water, and looks at the small sparks around his hand as the shark hightails it.

Sabo knows he was under for a while, but when Ace yanks his head above the water to yell at him, Sabo doesn't even feel that winded.

During the swim back to shore Sabo thinks about the absurd amount of static electricity Luffy generates on a daily basis, about how Luffy sure can hold his breath for a while despite not being able to swim.

Back on shore, while Ace is wrapping his leg up, Sabo thinks about how he doesn't feel cold at all because the heat in his chest feels like it's spiking and flaring in time with Ace's temper.

Sabo flexes his static-numbed fingers, trying to get the feeling back. “Hey, guys?” he starts, “I think something might have happened to me.”

-

Sabo's different now. It's weird, but in a good way! Him and Ace and Luffy spend a lot of time experimenting to try to figure out exactly how different Sabo is now. A lot of that time is spent trying to get Luffy to explain things with real words, and even more time is spent on chasing Ace and Luffy for laughing when something goes wrong.

All in all, it's probably some of the best days of Sabo's young life.

-

Sabo is floating both literally and figuratively.

He's also dead.

No, wait, that's not right.

But he's dead.

But he's not though.

-

The three of them are eating dinner, and as usual Luffy was complaining about not getting enough to eat. Luffy and Ace are bickering and Sabo's watching from the sidelines getting a laugh out of their antics. The night is warm, and there's a pleasant breeze blowing through the tree fort, and Sabo feels so warm inside while watching his two stupid brothers.

After one too many kicks to the face Luffy gives up on Ace, and moves over to try to wheedle food out of Sabo. Sabo doesn't hear Luffy's exact words, it was probably just one of his usual complaints, but Sabo does hear the feeling, the intent.

_Give That To Me ___

__And something about Luffy's words settled in Sabo's head, and pushed just right._ _

__And then._ _

__Sabo was floating._ _

__Everything looked and felt different, it was like Sabo was experiencing his own perspective from the perspective of somebody else. He could see his body sitting there, but it wasn't really him. Sabo was himself, that body just had him in it sometimes. He saw himself move, but the sensation felt like it was on a delay._ _

__Sabo felt like he should be worried, but he didn't feel anything. In fact, h- couldn't remember having ever felt anything. Maybe -- had never felt anything because that's not what it's for. It doesn't have opinions, or feelings, or thoughts because it's only a_ _

__He feels warm._ _

__Sabo blinks at the ceiling. He's on his back, the sun has fully set, and Ace and Luffy are trying to crush him._ _

__“Guys?” Sabo says weakly. His mouth is unexpectedly dry, when was the last time he'd had something to drink?_ _

__Ace's head snaps up at the sound of his voice. Now that Sabo can see his face it looks like Ace has been crying._ _

__Ace doesn't look away as he leans over to shake Luffy's shoulder. “Hey!” he snaps, “Luffy, get up! Sabo's awake!”_ _

__It takes a second for Luffy to wake up, but as soon as he does he launches up to wrap his arms tightly around Sabo's neck, and starts wailing incomprehensibly._ _

__Sabo pats at Luffy's arms in an effort to get him to loosen his grip. “Lu-” Sabo gasps, “You're choking me.”_ _

__Ace pulls Luffy back, “Come on, Luffy, give him some room,” he tells Luffy as he fixes Sabo with a glare. Then, with the mean tone of voice he uses when he's trying not to sound worried, asks, “Sabo, what the hell. You not getting enough sleep or something?”_ _

__Sabo sits up slowly, his back hurts from being on the floor for however long. “I don't-” he tries, but has to stop to clear his throat. Was he asleep just now? Is Ace's narcolepsy catching? “What happened?” he manages to ask._ _

__Luffy's calmed down enough to speak, and whimpers, “You were just sitting there. You wouldn't say anything, or move, or, or-” Luffy paused to roughly wipe at his face, “You were just staring.”_ _

__Sabo tries his hardest to remember what he had been doing before his apparent blackout, but nothing comes to mind. It’s all_ _

__Blank_ _

____

-

He never feels cold anymore. That’s definitely an Ace thing. If he concentrates hard enough he can make sparks dance from his hands. That’s probably a Luffy thing, but why can’t Luffy do the same?

It’s a bummer he can’t shift like Ace, but at least that means no scales.

He can hold his breath for longer now, and burns hurt less, but those are two things he’s not willing to test too in depth.

Sleep schedule is the same. Appetite is the same. Attitude is the same. 

Most of the time anyway.

-

It happens a few more times before they’re able to make a guess at the trigger of Sabo’s ‘Attacks’ as they’ve come to call it. Now they need to test it.

“This is stupid.” says Ace. the three of them are sitting on the ground outside the treehouse. Ace and Sabo across from each other with Luffy off the side a bit. In the middle between all of them is one of Ace’s prized shiny rocks.

“This is stupid,” Sabo agrees, “but we’ve got to know for sure what’s causing,” he make a vague hand gesture, “this.”

“I’m not going to order you to pick up a rock.” snaps Ace.

Luffy chews his lip, uncharacteristically silent and still.

“Fine.” Sabo snaps back. He stands up to grab the rock himself, and turns to start walking away with it.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Calls Ace.

I’m taking your stipid rock, and I’m gonna throw it off the edge of the cliff.” yells Sabo

“What?” Ace scrambles to his feet, “No! That’s mine!”

“Not any more!” Sabo yells over his shoulder, and breaks into a run.

“No!” Ace starts running after him, but Sabo has a head start. “It’s mine! I found it fair and square, so give it back!

Sabo stops in his tracks.

He’s floating.

This time however he wasn’t floating outside of his body. He still felt distant, but he was more anchored this time. It was like a dream.

“Okay.” he said, and turned around to give to rock back to Ace. The rock was very shiny, he could see now why Ace liked it so much

Ace managed to stop before running into h-m. Ace took the rock back, and looked h-- up and down. “Sabo,” he said carefully, “ are you okay?”

H- thought for a moment . No sign of injury, he was a little winded though. “I am still functional.” -- said.

Ace looked scared for some reason. “Come on, Sabo. Cut it out, you’re gonna scare Luffy.”

\-- turned --s attention to the figure behind Ace. It was the other superior, and he did look worried.

“S-sabo, why are you acting so weird?” he sniffed. This wasn’t good. The superior was sad.

Why was the superior sad? Did he somehow not know? “We made a pact.” it explained.

“What ‘pact’?” asked the bigger one.

“Two weeks, and five days ago. We made a pact.” it repeated.

The smaller one was starting to sob. The bigger one furrowed his brows, ‘You mean when we became brothers?” he asked.

“Yes, when I was pledged to the two of you.” it said. 

At that the smaller one launched forward, and warped his arms around its waist. The bigger one put his hands on its shoulders, and shook them, “What are you talking about, pledged? We all promised each other that we’d be brothers. Nobody said anything about, about whatever this is!”

The smaller one sobbed, “Sabo, stop it! Stop acting weird! Stop it!”

He feels warm 

No, he feels like he’s burning alive. His fingers feel like he just shoved them into an outlet. The slight warmth in his chest is a roaring inferno.

Sabo blicks. He looks at his brothers. Luffy is a sobbing mess on his waist,. Ace has him by the shoulders, eyes glistening.

Sabo’s not quite sure how he knows this, but, “Guys?” he says, “I think you just fixed it.”

-

The cup tingled in Sabo’s hand, and the sake burned its way down his throat, as he promised to his new brothers that they would be together forever.

That he'd be theirs.

-

Sabo is experiencing a dilemma. The thing is his brothers think he’s dead, and he _is_ very close to dying, but he’s not dead yet. In fact someone has just fished him out of the water.

But his brothers believe very strongly that he’s died.

It’s not that they _want_ him to be dead, it’s just that they feel so strongly about it they can’t imagine things being any different. Sabo can see them from where he is, Ace bright like a bonfire, Luffy bright like lightning, and they’re dim with sorrow. The sadness is leaking out of them into Sabo, and it’s killing him.

Ace and Luffy don’t want him to be _dead,_ but they feelso _strongly_ that he is, but they don’t want him dead, but they _can’t_ feel anyother way, but. _But._ But.

So Sabo does the next best thing and

he 

_splits-_

-

Sabo wakes up.

His face is wet. Koala and Hack are standing of him fretting. Apparently he’s been asleep for three days.

“I need to speak to Dragon, please.” he says.

“But-” Koala protests.

_“Please”_

Sabo takes of his gloves while he waits for Dragon. He stares at his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists.

When Dragon arrives Sabo doesn’t even wait for him to get in the door before asking, “You’re like Luffy, aren't you?”

Dragon closes the door. “Luffy is my son, yes.” he says carefully.

Well Sabo’s just learning all sorts of new things today.

“When we were kids,” Sabo starts slowly, “Me ‘n Luffy ‘n Ace promised to be brothers.” Sabo unclenches his hand and concentrates on the numbness. “Something happened to me then.”

Dragon says nothing, so Sabo lets the sparks dance out of his fingertips. He looks up at Dragon with determination in his eyes and says, “I need you to teach me how to use this.”

**Author's Note:**

> depending on whether or not FMA retakes my soul the next fic in this series with be about flamingos


End file.
